The last ocean carrier to pull out of sailing through the Suez Canal for rotations between Europe and Asia because of Islamic militia attacks in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden is also the first line to extend its feeder services serving the Arabian Peninsula and neighbouring markets.
French line CMA CGM has announced that it has launched a new weekly service, the North Red Sea Express (NRX), through partnering with Folk Maritime, a short-sea feeder service headquartered in Riyadh.
The service will call at the ports of Jeddah, Yanbu and Neom, all three located north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, where Yemen’s Houthi rebels have focused most of their attacks on maritime traffic around the Horn of Africa.
NRX will also call at the Jordanian Port of Aqaba and Egypt’s Port of Sokha on the Gulf of Suez.
The first sailing will be on April 9 with the 2 100-TEU Jin Shun He, a container vessel registered in China.
The executive vice president of CMA CGM Group Lines, Olivier Nivoix, said: “This service will not only contribute to Saudi Arabia's expansion of its logistic capabilities in the North Red Sea, but also serve our customers with a better offering in this key region where CMA CGM Group has been pioneering direct calls to the port of Neom since March 2023.”
The new feeder service further adds to The Kingdom’s announcement in August last year that it’s launching the National Transport and Logistics Strategy (NTLS), an ambitious multimodal expansion development involving the establishment of 59 diversified transport centres.
At the time, it was reported that with the NTLS, Saudi Arabia intends to establish 12 hubs in both the Riyadh and Makkah regions, 17 in the Eastern region and an additional 18 hubs distributed across the country with 12 hubs already under construction.
The focus on developing the logistics sector is central to The Kingdom’s strategy to invest over 500 billion riyals ($133bn) by 2030 to expand its transportation sector.
Furthermore, Saudi plans to embark on more than 300 projects related to transport and logistics in collaboration with private sector entities, both domestically and internationally.
